By Matters India Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov 18, 2021: A High Court in Nepal on November 18 granted bail to two Catholic nuns and two volunteers from South Korea, who were arrested for “illegal conversion” in Nepal slums.
“Thank God for praying for Korean Sisters and volunteers. They got bail finally, thank you all for praying,” says a note from Father Silas Bogati, the vicar general of Nepal, posted on the “Couples for Christ – Nepal” WhatsApp group.
Sisters Gemma Lucia Kim and Martha Park Byongsuk, members of the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres Congregation, and two volunteers wee arrested September 14 after being accused of converting Hindus by coercion and allurement.
The Koreans were kept in a jail at Pokhara, the nuns’ base in Nepal some 200 km northwest of Kathmandu, the national capital.
The High Court granted the bail after the district court in Pokhara rejected the nuns’ application. The bail was given at around 4 pm (local time). The nuns are expected to be released November 19 after the bail is paid and formalities are done at the lower court, a source in Kathmandu told Matters India.
The nuns will have to appear for hearing in case at the lower district court at a given date.
Nepal’s Catholic Church, which has been praying for the nuns and their companions, was relieved and happy, the source added.
The two nuns have been managing “St. Paul’s Happy Home,” a center in Pokhara that provides accommodation, food, education, medical services and skills training to about 120 slum children at Bus-Park. The home is named St. Paul’s in honor of their congregation’s patron.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the nuns distributed food rations to the poor, but some people accused them of alluring them to become Catholics by giving low-quality food.
Bishop Paul Simick, the Apostolic Vicar of Nepal, has told Aid to the Church in Need that the nuns’ arrest and denial of bail has shocked the Nepalese Catholic community. The allegations against the nuns “are utterly baseless and unjust,” he asserted.
The prelate clarified that Catholics do not indulge in forceful conversion and “the Korean sisters are known for doing exclusively social work.”
The nuns, he added, “have been dedicating themselves totally to the poor for many years.”
At the same the nuns are “very calm and serene” in jail, Bishop Simick said. However, the prelate is “worried about their health as both are elderly.”
Catholics in Nepal view the incident as an attack on minority communities, and an attempt to criminalize particularly Christian missionary activities such as social services, providing education, and health care, which could be construed as an allurement for conversion, Bishop Simick explained.
Christians account for 1.4 percent of Nepal’s nearly 30 million people. In recent years churches have been experiencing growing hostility and intolerance in the Himalayan Hindu-majority nation.
Sister Byongsuk, popularly called “Sister Martha,” used to walk the narrow lanes of slums with a sling bag hung at her back containing a stethoscope and blood pressure monitoring equipment.
The 71-year-old nun entered the slums in March 2009. Until then, people were devoid of resources and children could not go to school and people had no access to health care facilities.
The children now have nutritious food and medical treatment and go to school. Impoverished children receive scholarships to continue their schooling.
Sister Byongsuk told Global Sisters Report in 2019 that she came to Nepal to serve the people by setting up small clinics. They came to Pokhara to open a clinic at the invitation of Father Lawrence Maniyar, who was then regional superior of the Jesuits in Nepal.